A Deadly American Marriage is about to be your next true crime obsession. The Netflix documentary dives into the fascinating, devastating true story of Jason Corbett, an Irishman and widowed father of two who, in 2015, was killed by his new American wife, Molly Martens, and her father, Thomas Martens.
In 2017, the pair were convicted of second-degree murder, but the convictions were overturned after an appeal. In 2023, Molly pleaded no contest and Thomas pleaded guilty to lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter. They were released from prison in June 2024.
Featuring interviews with Molly, Thomas, and Jason's children, Jack and Sarah, the documentary offers a complicated new perspective on the case, leaving it up to the viewer to decide what they believe really happened.
“This case demonstrates how complex the American justice system is,” Burgess and Popplewell said to Netflix's Tudum. “Where is the truth? Where are the lies? Where is justice? This documentary demonstrates that it’s not clear-cut.”
The love story between Jason and Molly in A Deadly American Marriage
The documentary begins as something of a fairytale romance.
We are introduced to Jason Corbett, an Irishman from Limerick, who was previously married to Margaret “Mags” Fitzpatrick. After her death in 2006 from an asthma attack, the then-30-year-old Jason was left raising their young children, Jack and Sarah.
He eventually found Molly Martens, a 24-year-old from Tennessee, on an au pair website. He hired her to help raise the children, and she moved to Ireland in 2008.
Soon enough, the pair fell for each other.
“He was charming, funny. He made me feel really special,” Molly remembers in the documentary. ”I felt like I was bringing joy back into Jack, Sarah and Jason’s life."
The pair moved to North Carolina with Jack and Sarah, where they were married in front of friends and family in 2011.
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The night of Jason Corbett's murder
The pair lived together for the next few years until, on August 2, 2015, Jason was killed in their home.
Years of legal battles and this new Netflix documentary show us one thing: we may never know exactly what happened that night. We are left piecing things together.
What seems to be clear is that a fight broke out between Jason, Molly, and her ex-FBI agent father, Thomas. And that Jason died the same night.
The questions left unanswered by Deadly American Marriage
The documentary opens up plenty of questions about the state of the relationship between Molly and Jason. Molly claimed that he had been coercively controlling her.
Thomas seemingly corroborated his daughter's allegations in the documentary. “Molly was becoming a shell of what she had been. She was definitely not as happy,” he said. “She was definitely not as confident. She was acting beaten down. I did not realise the extent or seriousness of the domestic abuse, but I do now.”
During the first trial, Thomas said that he hadn't been aware of any instances of abuse prior to the incidence on August 2, 2015. Molly chose not to take the stand in her defence. Details about Jason's alleged abuse of Molly were examined in more detail during a sentence hearing in 2023. An expert made the case that there was evidence to suggest Jason had been verbally and physically abusive.
Meanwhile, Jack and Sarah's initial interviews, in which they claimed their father had been abusive, were presented, along with their retractations in which they claimed Molly had coached them on what to say in the initial interviews. After Jack and Sarah each read victim's impact statements in court back in 2023, in which they accused Molly of previously coaching them, a defence lawyer for Molly said, “I think that was very difficult to listen to. I think if you sat and heard all the evidence, all the videotapes, Molly did the best job she could do raising those kids as a surrogate mother.”
Jack claims in the documentary that he has “no feelings” toward Molly. “I don’t hate her, I just don’t want to give her any power over me anymore,” he said. “My dad was my hero. He was someone I looked up to. He was my best friend.”
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